Underlying vortex flows associated with Rossby waves are projected onto an image of the sun.

(MPS/NASA/HormesDesign)

At a Glance

A new study has confirmed the existence of planetary waves, also known as Rossby waves, on the sun.These waves are a driving force of weather and climate on Earth.More research is needed to determine their impact on the sun's weather, according to the researchers.

Massive waves in Earth's atmosphere and oceans that influence weather patterns around the planet are also found on the sun, a new study has confirmed.

The findings, in the journal Nature, show the planetary waves,also known as Rossby waves,are definitely present inside the sun, and they're not all that different from the ones found on Earth. These waves occur naturally as fluids rotate, cycling through the atmosphere and oceans to drive climate and weather, the study also said.

"Solar Rossby waves have very small amplitudes and periods of several months, thus they are ," Laurent Gizon, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and co-author of the study, told ScienceAlert.

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The team of astrophysicists drew their conclusions by studying six years of data gathered by theHelioseismic and Magnetic Imager aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. From that data, they learned Rossby waves really do exist on the sun, but because they flow at a far slower amplitude than on Earth, they were very difficult to detect.

The scientists also admit that more research is needed to determine exactly what impact these Rossby waves have on the sun's weather, but knowing the waves exist is the first step.

"Solar Rossby waves are gigantic in size, with wavelengths comparable to the solar radius," Gizon told ScienceAlert. "All in all, we find large-scale waves of vorticity on the Sun that move in the direction opposite to rotation. That these waves are only seen in the equatorial regions is completely unexpected."

First discovered in the 1940s, Rossby waves were named for Swedish-American meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby, who made the discovery during his time as the , according to Brittanica.